OT security is a set of technologies and practices designed to monitor, control, and protect critical infrastructure and industrial control systems (ICS) from cyber threats.
Practices and technologies are used to:
With digitization and the use of smart devices (IIoT) within the OT environment, the need for the security of industrial control systems has increased. OT security helps protect against cyber threats, ensuring critical infrastructure remains secure and operational.
Why is OT security important?
Securing industrial networks can be done without impacting operations or risking non-compliance. Solutions that enable full visibility of network traffic monitoring and establishment of correct security policies set an effective OT security strategy that protects processes, people and profits while significantly reducing security vulnerabilities and incidents.
OT security is critical in protecting industries that rely on industrial control systems (ICS). ICS control systems are responsible for controlling physical processes within these organizations, such as regulating electrical grids or managing factory production lines. It is important to adequately protect OT systems in order to reduce the possibility of attacks on components by malicious attackers. Additionally, this is becoming an increasingly important element of compliance with the NIS2 regulation.
Who needs OT security?
OT encompasses the hardware and software systems necessary to monitor and control physical processes in various industries, including manufacturing, energy, transportation, healthcare, etc.
OT security is critically important for a variety of reasons and is needed by businesses in:
OT vs IT
OT security and IT security, although using similar tools, differ significantly in application. OT relies on controlling industrial devices, while information technology (IT) controls data. In particular, IT focuses on the confidentiality, integrity and availability of systems and data.
OT security must take into account the long lifecycle of industrial equipment, often spanning decades, and secure legacy systems that cannot always be patched. Additionally, OT security emphasizes the security, reliability, and availability of physical processes, which differentiates its approach from the data-centric focus of IT security.
Challenges and best practices
OT security, even with the emerging of various threat detection tools and software, presents several challenges:
Protecting OT systems requires the application of security practices to prevent potential cyber threats. Focusing on five key areas significantly strengthens OT security, namely:
A brief description of a typical incident, detected using a solution intended for OT security
After the successful installation of one of the advanced threat detection solutions within the OT environment, the “learning” feature of communication behavior within the OT environment is enabled. Our security analysts noticed anomalies in the communication of unknown devices in the network.
After additional analysis and verification of the network traffic directed to the IPS device for threat detection and prevention, it was found that these are incorrectly configured outdated devices that are not intended for OT environments. The mentioned devices used outdated encryption algorithms and vulnerable protocols that the attacker could exploit during the attack.
By routing traffic through the IPS device, the OT network was protected against already known threats using antivirus and IPS scans as well as virtual patching. After the analysis, the mentioned devices were replaced and removed from the OT network.
Suspicious devices were installed within the OT environment for several years, and were not recognized by existing security tools. By installing our systems, suspicious devices are recognized and removed in order to prevent potential attacks on OT critical infrastructure.
Our solutions
At Avola, we use the following solutions in our daily operations:
These are top manufacturers, and each of them will provide quality protection for your organization. Therefore, in the selection that we will propose to an individual user, we primarily look at the best possible integration with already existing solutions in his security system.
Some useful links related to OT security
You can also contact us for additional questions, at Avola we have top specialists for OT security, who will be happy to share their knowledge.